Code Lyoko: Lyokostar 1: Story 4: The Search
by WindySilver
Summary: As the fight continues, Mary and the other teens found on Lyoko try to find their living relatives. However, X.A.N.A. is not going to go easy on the group of Lyoko Warriors but increase the stakes. Does anyone have any hope of finding their family after so many years of separation?
1. Part 1: Looking for the Past

Mary stared at the name that was so distant that she had almost forgotten it. Jeremiah Wind. Her father, who stayed in Wales when she moved to France with her mother, Rachel, after Daphne's disappearance.

No information tended to be found of Jeremiah after the reportages of Daphne's disappearance had stopped. At this rate, she would have to dig deeper if she wanted to reach her father – if he still lived, that is.

"Finding anything?" William asked.

"Not really," Mary noted, sighing. "Dad has hidden himself from the world very well, I'll give him that. Who wants to search for info now?"

"I could search," Charlie said. "I found some obituaries with the name Mountien in an old newspaper, so it'd be good to check their relation to me."

Mary got up from her computer and gave Charlie the turn, sitting next to William on the bed then. Sophie lay on her bed, staring at the notes of her own finds so intensively that Mary felt like she was not really even looking at them anymore.

Eleonora came to the room, her phone still in her hand. Sophie raised her eyes from the notes to her and asked, "Did you reach anyone?"

Eleonora shook her head. "Just static, silence and 'the number you chose cannot be reached' notifications."

"Dang," Mary sighed. "Have you found any email address with which you could reach your parents?"

"My message hasn't been answered," Eleonora told and sat on the edge of Sophie's bed. "I haven't even got a confirmation of it being opened or even having gotten to the destination."

"Have you gotten any message of it not getting there?" William asked. Eleonora shook her head. "Then it must've gotten there."

"When did you send the message?" Charlie asked.

"A few days ago," Eleonora told.

"Maybe your mother just hasn't checked her email for a while," Charlie suggested, hoping that he was right.

"Have you found anything?" Eleonora asked.

"Obituaries and newspaper articles of big sister Alice's disappearance," Charlie told. "Although those articles don't do much else than wonder Alice and Mary's sister Daphne's disappearances and their connection despite of the long geographical distance. Nothing that'd help me find anything."

"Jeremy hasn't found anyone from the Digital Sea, Lyoko nor the supercomputer's logs either," William told. "I heard that some of the logfiles of the earliest virtualizations have been corrupted and even Franz doesn't remember those times properly anymore."

"They have to be out there somewhere," Mary said under their breath.

Charlie interrupted his search and looked at his friend. He understood her desire to find her sister well; he felt just the same when other extended had hardly been found. Now that they were once again properly humans and not just virtual avatars, each of them wanted to belong to this world.

They all wanted to find a family to which to go when it was time to go.

Still he could not help saying, "Or then X.A.N.A. never had anything to do with Daphne and Alice's disappearances, but they were a separate case." He knew that Mary had to take it into account while thinking about the case. It could well be that Alice and Daphne had gotten kidnapped, and maybe even killed, by a real human.

Mary turned to look Charlie in the eyes. Both of them saw the pain in the other's eyes when they thought about the worst-case scenario.

Thinking about it hurt so much that Mary turned to look at the floor again, damming her tears. Now that she had returned to the human life, she had really started to miss her family – and so had her comrades.

Unfortunately, the network did not give them much information that would have been helpful. A lot had had time to happen and change in ten years, so none of the old contact information most likely functioned anymore. If they wanted to get certain information, they would have to ask from the authorities, which in turn did not do as each of them had been missing for a decade and connecting their current information to the old one would only bring trouble.

No, they had to try to find information by other means, until they would either find answers or could investigate the cases with authorities without risking the battle against X.A.N.A., the other Lyoko Warriors or Kadic.

When the search continued with poor results, Mary sank into despair little by little. Did they have any chance of getting the answers they longed for?'

**/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Lyokostar story series and its original characters (c) Me/**


	2. Part 2: Does anyone copy?

Charlie looked at the obituaries he had found, numb. It was difficult to believe that his parents were there. A fierce fire had destroyed totally everything, from the parents and pets to the whole building. The only remains were just ash, the foundations and scrap metal.

It was completely impossible to believe that he – and Alice, if she would be found alive someday – had nothing left of their old life.

They say that ignorance is bliss. In this case, it truly was so. Charlie did not even know if he wanted to find his sister anymore. He did not want that she would know and experience the same pain as he did. The feeling was downright excruciating.

"Can I help you somehow?" William asked. Charlie shook his head and still looked at the obituaries. William looked at his roommate sitting at the table, not knowing what he could do.

"Tell me if I can do something," he said.

"Yeah," Charlie mumbled as a reply.

William sat on his bed and started to read a textbook the content of which he had to write an essay about. He could not do nothing else for now.

Eleonora sent a new email. Two weeks had already passed since the previous message, so it was for the best to try again. The message had to have reached its destination, as William had said, so she had to hope that by trying for long enough she could reach her mother.

The investigations had borne so little fruit that Jeremy and Aelita had decided to take the lead and acquire the contact information – or at least verify what they had already found. The email address was right, so Eleonora just had to keep trying.

If she just got an answer, that would be enough. Arranging a meeting, on the other hand, would be difficult because her mother had moved to her parents' place in Birmingham when cancer had taken her father's life and the geographical distance had grown big.

Perhaps someday Joanna Ennide would reply to her email and would want to talk with her daughter.

Sophie lay on her bed and turned her pillow so that there would not be an area wetted by tears under her cheek. Even though she had never known it, she had had a little brother. Had had.

Did not have anymore.

He had been born and died completely without her knowledge. Her – their – parents had also disappeared from life without her knowing anything about it.

Mary beat and kicked a punching bag in the school's gym. Even though she was grateful for Aelita and Jeremy's help, still the bad news which had come to Charlie and Sophie made her feel something she wanted to shout at the top of her lungs out of rage for. It would have been better if they had gotten the information by themselves instead of some middleman intervening and bringing the news completely unasked.

After all, this hardly had anything to do with the group's brain couple, so Mary felt that they were not supposed to go to investigate things for them at least on their own. Something in them deciding to involve themselves with this personal matter with their own permission downright enraged her.

Sophie did not want to talk about the news she had gotten so Mary, feeling helplessness, had decided to go vent her emotions into a punching bag to be available if something happened. Otherwise she would have gone all the way to Lyoko to let all of her rage loose, but right now was for the best that she stayed near Kadic if Sophie wanted to talk after all.

Even though Mary did not like the fact that Jeremy and Aelita had gotten themselves involved with this case, she hated X.A.N.A. more than them. This whole mess was its fault alone and she knew it.

At the same time as she vented her feelings into the punching bag, Jim observing her rage in astonishment, she waited for a reply message from her father. Now that she had gotten the right phone number, she had sent a text message to him. At least hopefully she would also get a reply to it.

William had, in all his optimism, encouraged her and Eleonora to believe in the answer coming sooner or later. And so they waited, trying to believe so hard that they knew that the answer would come.

X.A.N.A. disagreed on the arrival of the answers. It was not planning to let the teens it had taken for itself to restore their ties to the world outside Lyoko. It guaranteed itself that each message they would send would never reach their destination.

Never.

It had taken these teens for itself and even though they rebelled against its grip, it was never going to let go of them.

Someday it would get its warriors back to itself, for better or worse.

**/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Lyokostar story series and its original characters (c) Me/**


	3. Part 3: A Return to Earth's Surface

Weeks passed by again and Mary and Eleonora did not get the replies they waited for.

"You'd think that those messages would've arrived," Charlie noted, frowning.

"Are you completely sure that the information is absolutely correct?" William asked.

"Yes. I asked Aelita to help me recheck and it is correct," Mary answered.

"Could they have ended up into some filter's net since they come from overseas?" Sophie suggested.

"My text message might have," Mary noted. "Perhaps Eleonora's email has ended up among spam."

"It shouldn't have," William noted. "Our email service provider is known enough that it should have gotten through spam filters, after all. Perhaps Eleonora's mother just hasn't checked her email in ages, that's all."

"I hope you're right, William," Eleonora sighed. The weeks had passed without answers so fast that her faith started to be running out. 

In the meantime, on the floor below in Jeremy's room, the brains of the Lyoko Warriors followed a new program's testing, holding their breaths. None of the prior tests had gotten this far. Aelita did not dare to hope that it would work at last. 

The minutes passed by with the length of years when the program still progressed. On the other side of the screen, Franz Hopper observed the situation, hopeful. 

When the test run ended to a green exclamation mark, Jeremy's room was filled with cries of joy. The materialization program designed for Aelita's father worked! 

While Mary's room on the girls' floor was filled with despair, Jeremy and Aelita ran from Einstein's room to the factory with a CD to run their program before X.A.N.A. would have the time to lock its creator on Lyoko with new ways. The duo did not even tell anyone else of their accomplishment; they would have time to tell the others when Hopper would be back on Earth. 

"I'll go send one more email," Eleonora announced and got up from Sophie's bed. "Maybe it'll get to its destination now."

"Let's hope so," Mary said. They all watched when the blue-haired girl left from the room, head drooping. 

Charlie pondered for a while what he should do and said then, "I'll go after her." Thus, he left the room as well. William looked after him, worried; even though Charlie did not show it, the news brought by Jeremy and Aelita still affected him negatively. 

After a while, Sophie left for a date with Odd, whereupon William and Mary were left alone. After a moment's silence, Mary asked, "William, do you still believe that our messages are reaching their destinations?"

"I strive to believe," William answered.

"Good," Mary said, leaning her head against the back of her chair. "Because I no longer do. I'm afraid that neither does Eleonora."

"I know," William said. "How are you doing?"

"Probably better than Sophie and Charlie," Mary said, sighing. "Jeremy and Aelita shouldn't have gotten involved with this on their own."

"Yeah," William agreed. "Apparently, Aelita had been against it but Jeremy insisted."

"Of course," Mary sighed. "Einstein, always equally discreet." 

X.A.N.A. chuckled by itself when it snatched Eleonora's email out of the network and kept it to itself. It knew that it had won an important battle in this war: the battle for the ties to the outside world its warriors had lost. 

At the same time at the factory, Aelita hugged his newly materialized father for the first time in years. Jeremy wiped away a tear of joy while watching the reunion of a father and daughter. Now, it would be time to start refurbishing the Hermitage so that Aelita would once again have a home to return to. That they had planned by the three of them for a good while already, and now it was finally the time to carry out that plan. 

Even though Franz Hopper had gotten free of Lyoko's shackles, X.A.N.A. was not disappointed. At this point in the fight, its creator was not of much use anymore and it had managed to destroy the morale of half of the group nevertheless, which was a greater victory than keeping Hopper on Lyoko. Even though concentrating on freeing him would have taken the attention of the group's brains for a while yet, it would have simultaneously motivated them to fight even harder. 

Now that Hopper was free, X.A.N.A. could lull the Lyoko Warriors into a false sense of security and strike when they would no longer expect it.

**/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Lyokostar story series and its original characters (c) Me/**


	4. Part 4: Counterblow

"Mary, wake up!" someone said. Mary opened her eyes and saw that William had woken her up.

"What now? X.A.N.A.?" Mary asked, rubbing her eyes.

"At the Core of Lyoko," William answered. "The phone lines are still off."

Mary got up from her bed and glanced at her phone. The bars were nonexistent because of a widescale maintenance.

"Sophie already went ahead. Let's go, X.A.N.A. may be fully in action already," William continued.

They hurried to the factory, catching up with the others in the sewers, and Jeremy virtualized the whole group on Lyoko. In the Core Chamber, they saw an enormous flock of Mantas which started to fire at them right away as they approached. Ulrich and Odd were devirtualized very fast when the laser fire got through their defenses.

"Oh no!" Mary cried out while throwing fireballs. Yumi was devirtualized. Mary knew that she could not start to fry Mantas as a dragon without risking the Core of Lyoko, so she had to shoot fireballs as much as she just had the time for.

"There's way too many of them!" Aelita cried out and was devirtualized. Eleonora took her place and froze every single Manta that just came close enough while Charlie covered her with Ice Flames. Sophie shot Storm Spheres while William protected her with his sword between each Laser Air.

Mary got up on her wings and flew straight into the flock, firing at or clawing at each Manta she just reached. She would have to get up to destroy the Mantas firing at the Core before they would have the time to destroy the second shield layer too. The first one had already disappeared.

At the same time Jeremy and Aelita watched in horror when the Superscanner suddenly started to function; it showed an active tower in Sector Five. No one could deactivate it now that Aelita had been devirtualized.

"Oh no," Ulrich cried out.

"What now?" Eleonora asked.

"Sector Five's tower is active! X.A.N.A.'s attacking and we can't do anything!" Jeremy answered.

"Well this was missing from this mess!" Mary exclaimed and shot one of the Mantas closest to the Core of Lyoko. Then she was shot down.

Charlie was devirtualized.

"Charlie, no!" Eleonora cried out. Her concentration slackened and three Mantas fired her back to the factory after her friend.

Mary rose from her crash site and started to shoot fireballs again.

"Hurry up, the second shield layer doesn't last much longer!" Jeremy shouted.

"We're doing our best, Jeremy!" Sophie shouted in despair. "But now it doesn't seem to be enough!"

William roared out of rage and threw an enormous Laser Air at two Mantas. Unfortunately, that movement left Sophie defenseless. The survived Mantas used the situation to their advantage and Sophie was devirtualized as the second shield layer was destroyed while Mary roared against it. The ones in the lab gasped and Jeremy already prepared to materialize Mary and William. The game was over.

Then the firing ended. Mary shot Mantas but they did nothing.

William jumped on a Manta and it rose up and did not even try to drop him. Mary looked at that sight for a moment, confused. When the Manta carrying William settled near the Core, Mary realized what was about to happen. She raised a fireball to devirtualize William to save him from a long-term Xanafication, but one of the Mantas shot her to the stomach. The girl tried to get back on her feet during the volley but dropped straight on her stomach instead. She could only watch when William struck his sword into the Core of Lyoko and already create an immunity to the Digital Sea.

Lyoko disappeared, accompanied by the shouts of the Lyoko Warriors in the lab, and Mary fell once again. X.A.N.A. did not let Jeremy materialize her, let alone William. William fell after Mary, the grin of a victorious Xanafied on his face.

_William, I promise that I'll save you from X.A.N.A.'s possession when I return_, Mary thought and disappeared under the surface of the Digital Sea. She stayed near the once again gone location of Lyoko, hoping that the virtual world would come back soon. She did not see William ever since that.

Lyoko came back surprisingly soon. Mary hurried back and found herself from the Desert Sector.

"Jeremy? Aelita?" Mary called upon getting to the surface. "Yo-hoo? Does anybody hear me?"

No answer. Either the connection was off or no one was present any longer. Mary believed in the former because hardly anyone would have left the lab immediately after recreating Lyoko.

"Well, this was missing from this mess," Mary sighed. She did not dare to devirtualize herself, so she headed away from the scene, hoping that she would find a tower somewhere.

Before a tower, she was faced with a simulation bubble. Mary studied it, suspicious; it had to be a trap of X.A.N.A.'s. On the other hand, her curiosity made her approach it with caution. What kind of a trap could there be when X.A.N.A. surely would know that she would be on her guard, perhaps even evade it?

But why would X.A.N.A. even bother to create such an obvious trap which she would know to evade? Mary frowned while pondering it. Did the AI presume that her curiosity would awaken when something this unusual would happen?

Something in that mysterious bubble made Mary approach it. It felt like she would find answers from there. But what answers? Mary could not say. For some reason, she just had to approach it, as if she was under the spell of a siren song.

Only a couple of steps away from the bubble Mary heard a familiar voice and started to turn to face her enemy, but instead she was shoved inside the bubble.

Mary stumbled and tried to turn again, readier to fight, but someone grabbed her wrist and said, "Hello again, Mary."

XanaWilliam had caught her. Even though Mary tried to struggle, panicky, his hold was too tight. Mary could do nothing, so she gave up her escape attempt and decided to see what was to come.

"You're not tough now, huh?" XanaWilliam asked, grinning with schadenfreude.

"I don't seem to have a chance to defend myself, so it's useless to try to fight," Mary told dryly. William sneered, victorious and started to pull Mary after him deeper into the simulation bubble, and the girl did not resist but followed, confused by the situation.

Only at the mouth of a cave found from the simulation bubble XanaWilliam stopped.

**/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Lyokostar story series and its original characters (c) Me/**


	5. Part 5: The Cave

Mary looked at XanaWilliam, waiting for him to explain what this was about. The cave seemed to call her with even more strength than the simulation bubble, but what did X.A.N.A. even want or plan?  
"Mary, if you want your freedom back, you must find a way through the labyrinthine corridors of the mountain," XanaWilliam told, exaggerating the dramatic nature of his words. Mary could only barely hold an irritated sigh inside; she could not stand melodrama.

Almost as little she could stand the fact that she had no idea about what was actually going on.  
"Fine. Will you leave me to wander or are you going to come with me holding my hand like some little kid?" Mary threw.

XanaWilliam growled something in anger and tossed Mary's hand away. Mary could only barely keep the grin off her mouth when she saw her enemy unnerve while saying, "Well, I'll go now."  
"You're not going alone!" XanaWilliam snarled.  
"Fine, whatever," Mary said, shrugging. "As long as you don't get lost."

XanaWilliam growled something again and for a moment Mary thought that he would attack her. However, that did not happen, so the duo stepped into the mountain.

The mouth of the cave collapsed behind them and the only source of light disappeared out of sight.  
"Great... What a fantastic day," XanaWilliam growled, frustrated.

Without caring about the frustration of the Xana Warrior coming behind her, Mary created a fireball and lighted the corridors with it. Something in them felt familiar, as if she had been in that very same cave even though she had never been in a single cave on Earth.

When Mary dug her memory, she found a dream she had seen ages ago from the depths of her mind's bottom. In that dream, someone had led her out of that cave.

This cave could not be the same in any way, Mary was absolutely sure of that. However, she had no other route in her mind, so she decided to follow her dream's route as well as she could remember.

XanaWilliam followed Mary, still grumbling, but after a while Mary did not even notice his complaining anymore. Following the dream took all the attention from the girl, and she gradually flowed so deep into the memories that she felt like she even saw someone ahead of her, beckoning the right path. Mary could not remember anything characteristic nor did she recognize her guide, but something in them felt familiar, as if she had known them all her life.

After what felt like an eternity, Mary and XanaWilliam arrived in a small chamber with a small chest on the floor. The guide disappeared after getting to the chest. Now the call which had guided Mary close to the simulation bubble was insurmountable. The Lyoko Warrior girl could not stop her feet from walking to the chest. When she got to it and crouched to inspect it, she saw the words _A world without danger_ written in a strange yet still familiar writing.  
"What is it?" XanaWilliam snarled.

Still under the spell of the siren song coming from the chest, Mary did not even hear him but opened the chest. In it was a dragon-shaped pendant that seemed to radiate a power that called the dragon girl. Mary felt deep in her bones that that pendant belonged to her, that she had been meant to find it here and take it for herself. Therefore, she took it in her hand, stood up and moved on without saying anything. Suddenly she did not fear XanaWilliam at all, even though he did follow her close to see at least somehow in front of himself. He still grumbled something but all talk was mere strange murmur in the background when Mary walked forward, certain of the way out.

The other mouth of the cave appeared. As soon as Mary had stepped through it, the simulation bubble disintegrated, revealing the Desert Sector. Without thinking any further, Mary started to run away before XanaWilliam would have the time to do something. She had to get some distance.

When nothing happened, Mary stopped and looked back. XanaWilliam did not follow her but looked at her, smug.  
"You cannot escape me," he said.  
"I seem to be escaping very well," Mary remarked, baffled, turned her back again and ran forward. After a while she stopped again and looked if XanaWilliam followed her. He did not.

Mary frowned and tried to understand what X.A.N.A. was actually trying. Was this some kind of a strategy using reverse psychology or was she running into a new trap?

But where had the pendant come from? Mary felt its power against her palm. X.A.N.A. could not attempt strengthen her when she was on her own. No... that simulation bubble must have been created by someone else. But who?

Mary did not know. She could only hope that Jeremy or Franz Hopper had been on the case and tried to help her in a challenging situation.

Now the only thing that mattered was finding a tower.

Mary turned her back on her enemy for the third time and resumed her run. The tower appeared from behind a boulder in the horizon in front of her.

This time something hit Mary on the back and knocked her over. She got back up on her feet quickly, squeezing the pendant tight in her hand and turned to face XanaWilliam, who now came towards her. The girl's jaw dropped when she saw that he had two giant Zweihänder swords in his hands. _How can he even carry two outrageously huge swords?!_  
"It's over, Mary!" XanaWilliam shouted. "You won't get any farther than this!"  
"We'll see about that!" Mary shouted back and got up on her wings. She threw fireballs towards her enemy and flew towards the tower at full speed. XanaWilliam roared in rage and started to throw Laser Airs with both swords, but Mary grinned while flying. She had already gotten further and proven XanaWilliam's statement wrong. She landed behind a boulder and prepared to attack. XanaWilliam came in front of her with Super Smoke and tried to hit her with even one of his swords, but Mary was already multiple sword's lengths away when the attack ended.

If William had gotten more power from X.A.N.A. (again), it was only right that Mary would take the most of what she had gotten from Lyoko herself.  
"You cannot defeat me with two swords!" Mary blustered and showed the pendant. "Watch and witness my new powers!"

Confused, XanaWilliam looked at the pendant and how Mary put it around her neck. He did not know what this was about.

A new, different power filled Mary as it spread from the pendant to her whole body and joined her old powers.

XanaWilliam gasped. Mary's Lyoko suit changed; the design of the shirt shifted, dark green half gloves came to her hands and the blue pants turned into a green skirt. All that thanks to just that small pendant.

Mary felt strong enough to save an entire world. When she closed her eyes and looked inside herself through the new power, she saw what she was fighting for: _a world without danger_.

Yes. A world without danger. That she wanted. Mary opened her eyes, feeling a power that seemed to come from another world, a world without danger, inside her.

If she only continued fighting, she would get answers she did not know she was looking for yet. That Mary knew for certain now.

Now if ever she had to keep fighting for all it was worth, with both old powers as well as new ones.

Mary shot a new fireball that blazed stronger towards XanaWilliam. He parried it and sent a Laser Air as a response. Mary jumped over it. She had to survive this battle somehow. XanaWilliam had to be disarmed.

~Hang in there, Mary! Help is on the way!~ someone said. Mary heard it only in her own head, not with her own ears, as if it had not been said aloud but had been said nevertheless.

The vision of a world without danger had brought Mary new hope of a victory, but that familiar voice cast hope of its own kind into her.

The real William was on the loose and on his way to aid her.

**/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Lyokostar story series and its original characters (c) Me/**


	6. Part 6: New Powers

XanaWilliam – or rather a clone of him, just like the real William's voice could prove – threw another Laser Air towards Mary, who dodged. Another Laser Air. A dodge and a fireball. The clone roared in rage and threw a Laser Air with both swords. Even though Mary dodged, those two Laser Airs were stopped by another Laser Air coming from above behind Mary which destroyed them.

After the suddenly come Laser Air, William, armed with his sword, fell on the ground. He straightened his back and walked to Mary.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"I am now. Thank you," Mary answered, smiling. "Did you come here alone?"

"No, not alone," William answered, giving a laugh. "Sophie, Charlie and Eleonora will come when they get this far. I heard that X.A.N.A. messed the supercomputer up real bad when it destroyed the Core of Lyoko. The vehicles and voice communication don't work."

"Was that simulation bubble I was in a while ago created by the folks in the lab?" Mary asked.

"No," William answered. "Jeremy didn't manage to figure out its origin. There was something powerful inside, though, since it changed multiple Lyoko suits at the same time."

Now Mary noticed that her friend's suit was darker than before. Gray had given way to black and all signs of X.A.N.A. were gone. Mary glanced at her pendant and wondered aloud, "Did this do that much?"

"So it seems," William noted. "I don't know about the original group, but at least we newer ones were affected. I don't know if it resulted from us being on Lyoko at the same time as you or if it affects every virtualization profile on the supercomputer.

"Perhaps Jeremy will find out later," Mary noted.

"Are you going to prattle there like old women for the whole day?" the clone asked with an emphasized loud voice. Mary and William turned to look at him. Mary shot a fireball at him with no remorse and the two Lyoko Warriors watched as the clone disappeared.

"So much for that," William noted, grinning.

"Yup," Mary said. Relief started to spread further now that the danger was over, and she could not stop herself from hugging William.

"Umm... I didn't figure you'd be this happy for destroying that specter," William said, surprised.

"I'm happy that you're here and all right," Mary noted. She let go upon hearing a group of running steps. Three Lyoko Warriors came towards them.

"Are you ok, Mary?" Eleonora asked first.

"I am," Mary said. "It's nice to see you too."

She hugged each of her friends briefly and looked at the changes of their suits then. Sophie's suit looked completely different: the gray clothes had changed to a purple long-sleeved shirt, there was a light purple belt on the waist instead of the cape and the trousers had turned into a knee-length violet skirt, after which black leggings and boots finished the ensemble. In Eleonora's suit, on the other hand, the arm guards had changed to a blue-gray coat and gloves and the purple skirt and white belt had changed to a tighter pale turquoise skirt. Charlie's suit's blue vest had in turn changed to a dark-blue long coat, while the half-gloves had turned into darker blue gloves. Otherwise his suit did not seem to have changed.

"You appear to be delighted from our arrival," Sophie said.

"More than delighted!" Mary noted. "What has happened?"

"Franz Hopper recreated Lyoko. He, Aelita and Jeremy are fixing the supercomputer as we speak," Charlie told. "When it comes to William, Jim found him unconscious in a cleaning closet."

"So the William who destroyed the Core of Lyoko was a copy?" Mary asked.

"Yes," William answered. "It seems that it was the attack which Sector Five's tower was used for. The specter attacked and stunned me once I had answered to Jeremy's alert. When I woke up to Jim's slap in the cleaning closet, Lyoko was already gone."

"It must've been nice to wake up to that," Mary noted, unable to stop her grin.

"It was, it truly was," William remarked dryly. "Luckily I didn't get detention for it."

"Does anyone hear?" Aelita's voice suddenly became audible. "William and the others, do you read?"

"We do, Aelita," William answered. "What's the situation there?"

"We got the voice communication back," Aelita said. "Materialization doesn't seem to work yet, so go to the nearest tower for protection from the monsters."

"How bad does it look there?" Mary asked as they started to walk to the tower she had previously tried to reach.

"Mostly just bugs that we can deal with," Aelita noted. "What happened in the simulation bubble?"

"I found a pendant which apparently changed others' suits in addition to mine in a cave there," Mary told. "Do you have any idea where it's from?"

"We have not had the time to inspect it properly yet," Franz Hopper answered. "However, it does not seem to be based on Lyoko's source code, only modified for it. It is from a more powerful system."

"Then how did it end up on Lyoko?" Sophie wondered.

"It might be that we will not get an answer for that," Franz Hopper answered. "I will investigate the matter when the supercomputer is fixed."

When the quintet got to the tower, they sat down to discuss. Mary started to investigate her pendant's source code from the tower since she could not help otherwise. She did not recognize the code which had been modified to be compatible with Lyoko, but still she understood it, as if she knew it like the back of her hand. One thing she knew for sure, though: the pendant had not ended up on Lyoko by accident. Someone had put it there knowing how to make it compatible with Lyoko's source code without damaging anyone whom it affected. She did not manage to trace any origin for it: it was as if it had come from inside Lyoko, not outside.

When Mary told about her finds, Hopper sounded worried. He did not recognize the source code of the pendant in any way nor did the phrase _a world without danger_ ring a bell to anyone except for the five of them who had been affected by the pendant.

They had no idea who had helped Mary and strengthened the Lyoko Warriors on Lyoko at the time of activating the pendant, who were the only ones it had affected.

They only knew that it originated from a system outside of Lyoko and had been brought there on purpose, perhaps even for that exact moment.

William looked at the pendant. Somewhere deep inside he felt that X.A.N.A. was afraid of the power they had now received.

"How did this pendant affect us altogether?" Charlie asked. "Our suits changed and we all at least feel stronger. What else did it do?"

"In addition to strengthening you it appears that each of you got the ability to turn into an animal," Franz Hopper told. "At least that is how I understand this."

"Really? Cool!" William exclaimed, excited. "How does it work?"

"I don't know," was the answer from the lab.

"I guess all we can do is try," Eleonora said and stood up. She concentrated on using the new power which flooded somewhere far from a world without danger. She surprised everyone by turning into a wolf all of a sudden.

"Unbelievable!" Sophie gasped. She concentrated on the form of an eagle and suddenly in her place sat a baffled bald eagle.

The still human trio looked at their fellows and each other, astounded. Even though the animal forms were not completely realistic, they did look like real animals.

"I have to try this," Mary said. She concentrated on turning into a cat and meowed, startled, when she noticed that she was suddenly not just on four limbs but also far smaller than William and Charlie!

"You became cute," Charlie laughed. Mary tried to frown but instead a growl got out of her throat.

~Give it a try, guys! This is awesome!~ Eleonora said. ~The communications seem to work as well!~

~Is this the telepathy that's in fiction?~ Mary wondered.

"So it would seem," William noted. "I guess we're inside some story at least now."

William did not know what he wanted to turn into, so when he tried to find a form from his mind, he noticed he had turned into a tiger by accident.

"Did you want to be a tiger?" Charlie asked, grinning.

~No! But this'll do just fine,~ William answered and let a slightly purr-sounding growl from his throat. Charlie turned into a gazelle and skipped in his spot a bit, avoiding crushing Mary under his legs.

~I wonder if anyone on Earth hears us,~ Sophie wondered aloud. They waited for a while but no one said anything.

~Apparently not,~ Mary noted. ~At least we can discuss strategy between each other without X.A.N.A. hearing.~

~True,~ Charlie remarked.

~I guess we could turn back into humans and see what they think about this ability at the lab,~ Sophie said.

No one opposed the idea, so within a short moment a miscellaneous group of animals turned into a group of young warriors.

"Did that mess anything up on the supercomputer?" Mary asked.

"Actually, it appears that it didn't," Jeremy answered, sounding surprised.

"Whoever brought those powers to Lyoko knew what they were doing and apparently knows Lyoko's code very well," Franz Hopper remarked. "No error messages nor damages came."

"It must have been an outsider," Aelita stated. "None of us three did it, Mary didn't do it nor does X.A.N.A. seem like a reasonable perpetrator. It can't have wanted to strengthen any of us, especially multiple warriors."

"No one has gotten to access the supercomputer without us knowing," Jeremy noted. "Could there be someone on Lyoko who is trying to help?"

"People have been hiding on Lyoko without anyone but X.A.N.A. knowing before," Mary noted from her own experience. "I don't think it'd be impossible that there's still someone out there hiding from us, someone who wants to and can help."

She looked at the path leading out of the tower. Somewhere out there was someone who had helped her today. That she knew for sure.

Maybe someday she would also meet this person and get to thank them by herself.

Maybe someday...

**/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Lyokostar story series and its original characters (c) Me/**


	7. Part 7: A Mystery

Suddenly the tower swung intensively. All five Lyoko Warriors fell on the floor.  
"Megatanks are trying to destroy the tower!" Jeremy reported. "The materialization doesn't work for sure yet. Escape to another sector before the tower is destroyed."  
"Then down we go," Mary remarked and spun off the edge. The others followed her, either rolling off the edge or getting up on their feet first. Those who had spun into the data tunnel fell on the floor of the tower on the other side and stood up then.  
"Megatanks are approaching that tower too! You must battle," Franz Hopper told. "When the materialization program works reliably, I will materialize you right away if you're in the middle of a battle."  
"Roger that," William said and took up his sword. "Attack!"

The Lyoko Warriors ran out, dodged the lasers and destroyed the Megatank quartet without problems.  
"That was easy. Now what? Shall we return to the tower?" Eleonora asked.

The mine field dropped around the tower by an enormous flock of Mantas answered _no_.  
"Go south, there's the next tower. Don't try to fight, there's too many of them," Jeremy instructed.  
"And how did you think we'd avoid the lasers?" Sophie exclaimed.  
"Turn into something small," Jeremy answered.  
"Let's take off so that we get away fast," Mary said.

Therefore, while the Mantas started to fire at them, they turned into miscellaneous hawks and set forth to the direction told by Jeremy. Lasers hurtled past them as the Mantas could not hit the small birds flying all over the place.

When they were at the tower and started to descend, a few Mantas managed to shoot them down. Mary fell to the water, the others onto the surface of the Ice Sector.

As the first reaction to ending up underwater, Mary flapped her wings frantically to get to the surface. When that did not help, she turned into a human and returned to the surface, then swam to the edge and grabbed the edge of the ice. The others turned into humans as well, looking at the Manta flock surrounding the tower. A familiar figure now rode the foremost Manta.  
"Hey! Hawks aren't water birds!" Mary shouted from the top of her lungs and shook her fist at a polymorphic clone who played William.  
"Where do those specters using William's face come from?" Charlie huffed.

"From Saunalahti, of course," someone might have jokingly noted, but now was definitely not the time for jokes. [Writer's note: The joke refers to a Finnish commercial.] William sighed in deep frustration and threw a Laser Air at the Manta carrying the specter. It dodged, but another Manta got destroyed instead.

Eleonora froze the Manta who dodged and then started to freeze other Mantas as well, watching how monsters exploded around her while the others covered her with their own weapons. When the specter ran towards them, Eleonora froze it to where it was.  
"The specter still has life points remaining! Destroy it!" Jeremy exclaimed.  
"With pleasure," William said and threw a Laser Air at it while Mary shot multiple fireballs along as a fallback. The specter disappeared and the Lyoko Warriors continued destroying the Mantas.  
"The materialization works now! I will start to bring you back," Franz Hopper told. "Materialize Mary, materialize Sophie, materialize Eleonora."

Upon stepping out of the scanner Mary noticed that the pendant found from Lyoko was still around her neck. The others noticed it as well, but she shook her head slightly and quickly hid the pendant to the phone pocket of her pants. William and Charlie came out of the scanner next, completely clueless.  
"How long was I away, by the way?" Mary asked when they went to the elevator.  
"Some hours," Sophie told. "I guess it's about noon now."  
"Great," Mary sighed. "There's no way I'll get to change clothes without attracting attention."  
"No need to worry," Sophie told. "I took the liberty to fetch your hoodie and bigger jeans from our room while the geniuses fixed Lyoko and the supercomputer. You can put them on so you'll get to pass."  
"Thank you," Mary thanked, relieved.  
"No problem," Sophie said. The elevator stopped and opened at the lab. The five Lyoko Warriors walked to the lab where everyone else was in their day clothes.  
"The supercomputer still needs some fixing, so we'll stay here for a while yet. Go have lunch, the rest of you," Aelita told and gave Mary the clothes Sophie had brought.  
"Thanks," Mary thanked and quickly put her clothes over her night clothes. No one would see the difference to the usual now.

Most of the group left the lab, leaving the computer geniuses to work in peace. Odd's stomach growled all the way from the sewers to the cafeteria.  
"Is everything ok, Mary?" Eleonora asked upon noticing that her friend did not eat much.  
"I'm just not that hungry yet, that's all," Mary answered. "These mashed potatoes tasting like soil doesn't help the matter."  
"How do you know what soil tastes like?" Ulrich asked.  
"A specter threw me head first into an unfinished flowerbed once," Mary answered. Then she grinned. "I could even swear that I still sneeze that same soil out of my nose every so often."

Others chuckled.  
"Odd, do you want the rest of my serving?" Mary asked.  
"Of course!" Odd exclaimed and took the tray to himself right away.  
"The walking stomach always accepts everything," Ulrich noted and laughed.  
"Luckily the food won't go to waste," Mary noted. "I'll go to my room. I need to do the homework and probably put these clothes to a wash."  
"See you later," William said.  
"Yeah, see you," Mary said and left to her room.

When the door was closed and locked, Mary changed her clothes into proper day clothes. The hoodie was actually in need of washing, so she put it into the pile of laundry and chose another hoodie from the wardrobe. At this time of Saturday, the washing machines were most likely all in use, so it was no use even trying to get to wash clothes for several hours. She could very well do the most urgent homework before everything else.

Once the homework for Monday was done, Mary took the pendant she had gotten on Lyoko from her night pants' pocket and inspected it. The fireball-orange stones looked back when she looked at them. The pendant was remarkably simple and smooth, but it seemed clearly to be rock and not plastic. Even though the wings were small, for its colors it seemed to be done based on her dragon form.

Mary felt the power ripple inside her when she held that pendant. Someone had made it for her, someone from a world without danger. So she at least felt like. Someone somewhere out there knew of her powers and had made the pendant with them in mind.

The stones at the eyes' places still looked back. The pendant brought only a huge pile of questions with it, not a single answer. Those answers she would have to find somehow herself.

Mary put the pendant around her neck and let the power flow. It was useless to hide it.

Sophie, Eleonora and the others came to the room later. The girl duo knew that there they could talk without the original group knowing a thing. Mary looked at them.  
"Where did you get that pendant?" Charlie asked upon noticing the pendant.  
"It came with me during the materialization," Mary told. "I don't know how, but it followed me to Earth."  
"Should we tell the others?" Sophie asked, worried.  
"They will find out soon enough," Mary told. "I'm not going to hide it any longer now that I'm completely sure that it was meant to end up to me."

On the next day, a new attack forced Mary to use the powers of the pendant on the factory's bridge to be able to charge through the wall formed by ten specters into the factory ahead of the others. No one was as surprised by the pendant's powers carrying to Earth as Mary herself. The scan did not show anything strange in her, so Jeremy did not see a reason to get worried. If they had even one Lyoko Warrior armed with real superpowers available, they would have better chances at fare against attacks. This information he relayed to the others and hoped that it would be enough to calm even the tensest of the group.

The specters came to the lab.  
"Hurry, things are going the get tough here," Jeremy stated. Ulrich was devirtualized by a Megatank's laser. "If you get devirtualized, come help me with the specters right away." Then he left the supercomputer and prepared to somehow survive his opponents.

Even though Mary's pendant had strengthened half of the warriors, its powers were not enough to help them survive the Mantas and Megatanks. Eleonora and Sophie were devirtualized fast, Charlie followed them soon.  
"We have to protect Aelita!" Yumi shouted. "Odd, William, Mary, here and fast!"  
"William, shield Aelita, I'll go roast!" Mary shouted, turned into a dragon and flew past Odd to destroy monsters. Odd did not manage to reach Aelita as two lasers to the back returned him to the factory. Yumi and William did their best to shield Aelita, but as Yumi was devirtualized, the mantas coming from behind – which Jeremy could not warn about while being absent from the supercomputer – got to Aelita's back.  
"No!" William cried out.  
"Go to the tower! The attack must be stopped somehow!" Aelita shouted while disappearing. William destroyed the Mantas that had come from behind and hurried towards the tower with Super Smoke. Mary joined him, turned into a human and tried to reach the tower before the lasers would reach her back.

William got all the way to the tower. Mary did not.  
"Rats!" William hissed. He was not in particularly friendly terms with the system of the towers.  
"We've had a program with which we can interrupt X.A.N.A.'s connection to the tower at least for a moment in development. It's not ready yet, so it has to be activated from the tower. William, you have to do it," Aelita said. "I'll load the program now."  
"Alright," William said.

The screen appeared in front of him, empty, and William tried to get some life into it by pressing his hand on it. The screen recognized the handprint and automatically entered the Lyoko code, upon which the tower was deactivated.

The specters disappeared.  
"Yes! The program works!" Jeremy shouted, excited.  
"Ummm... actually probably not?" William said, taken aback. "I... I think that... I deactivated the tower..."  
"What?!" came from multiple mouths.  
"So it seems," Aelita noted while looking at the Superscanner. "The program wasn't launched but the tower is no longer active."  
"I don't get how I did it, for real! I just pressed my hand on the screen and it just automatically entered the code and the tower was deactivated!" William told.  
"It did do that with me as well when I deactivated a tower for the first time without knowing what I was actually doing," Aelita mused.  
"How is this even possible?" Yumi asked.  
"The only option is that William has the Keys to Lyoko just like Aelita," Jeremy said.  
"But where has he gotten them all of a sudden?" Sophie asked. "Could it be caused by the pendant?"  
"I don't think so. The pendant was clearly from outside of Lyoko and its code had no indications to activating or deactivating towers," Jeremy told. He studied the scan files. "It's more likely that William's Keys originate from X.A.N.A."  
"So, do you mean that I've had these keys all this time and we've had no idea about it?" William asked.  
"That seems to be the most likely option. X.A.N.A. needed you for activating towers to his own side from our possession, so it'd make sense that you'd still have a copy of the Keys in your possession even now," Jeremy noted.  
"Well, you can do it and that's enough. There's no use troubling our heads with how you could do it," Aelita said, smiling. She felt relieved by the idea that deactivating the tower would no longer depend on her alone, although on the other hand she was vexed by the fact that she had now lost her exclusive skill.  
"True. It's important that we have multiple people to deactivate the tower in the group," Jeremy remarked. "I'll bring you back now."

When Jeremy had confirmed that everything was as it should, the group left the factory. It was time to return to the normal life until they would be needed again on Lyoko. X.A.N.A.'s attack had been stopped, so everything was fine once again for now.

At the same time, they knew that on the other side of the world yet unknown mysteries and answers to new questions waited for their finders.

**/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Lyokostar story series and its original characters (c) Me/**


End file.
